Qhich does quantamn physics better?

[Cheerful Coffin]

Besides dungeons&dragons, I am a big fan of quantamn theory, now if I could find a way to mingle these two together I'd be in heaven. And I see ways I can. (Custom spells/powers.)

Now, would you say arcana magic or psionicists does better at relating to quantamn physics and if so explain why. Go in depth. If you like science and technology you'll understand why I appreciate it so that we discuss more into it.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Besides dungeons&dragons, I am a big fan of quantamn theory, now if I could find a way to mingle these two together I'd be in heaven. And I see ways I can. (Custom spells/powers.)

Now, would you say arcana magic or psionicists does better at relating to quantamn physics and if so explain why. Go in depth. If you like science and technology you'll understand why I appreciate it so that we discuss more into it.

So far, none of it seems too strongly related to Quantum Physics...
Though both have one thing in common:
There seem to be some kind of "quantization" in magic and psionic - namely the caster level and the spell or the manifester level and the power level.

 

[Pbartender]

I'n my humble experience, it's best to keep your magic and science more or less seperate. Otherwise, you run the risk of players rationalizing and reasoning, using modern scientific theories, things about the effects of spells that shouldn't be allowing under the standard rules.

If you want to play a science-fantasy game I'd recommend Star Wars, Cyberpunk or Shadowrun.

Full Frontal Nerdity #6...

 

[Yair]

Indeed. I like Spechulrave's comparison of spell levels to valence levels, and epic spells to "transvelance" (free, dense, energy spectrum). (For those who don't know: valence levels imply the discrete energy levels in an energy well, a particle outside the well has energy not constrained to certain levels.)
I think psionic flavor is typically more inclined towards QM fluff, but I don't really see a mechanical difference.
Another possible analogy are the various luck bonuses (and espeically rerolls). You could say that the character lives out several different realities, but only the luckier one is made manifest (collapses the wave function). So maybe the most fitting magic is the divine magic of a deity of luck
It is possible to consider all magic and the supernatural as choosing the universes with very unlikely probabilities. Why, according to the Many Worlds Interpertation these worlds even exist. I personally reserve such treatment for more realistic game-systems, however.

 

[robberbaron]

Might be a bit of a tangent but I tried to explain the way magic and power affected my universe to my players, in terms of Gravity.

It went something like this:

Think of the classic Gravity Well demonstration - rubber sheet with a steel ball in the centre.

Anything else on the sheet will tend to move towards the central ball.

Replace steel ball with a magic item, character, whatever. The more powerful it is, the larger the ball.

Thus, things tend to gravitate towards items and characters; the more powerful they are, the larger the attraction.
So, really powerful characters will attract followers/hangers on (and enemies) more easily than lower powered ones. Ditto, the more powerful the magic item, the more thieves are out to get it.



It works for me, anyway.

 

[Psion]

I was just going to come in here and pontificate about how spell levels resemble the quantum arrangement of electron shells and nucleons. Damn you, Yair!

 

[Brad Hindman]

Indeed. I like Spechulrave's comparison of spell levels to valence levels, and epic spells to "transvelance" (free, dense, energy spectrum). (For those who don't know: valence levels imply the discrete energy levels in an energy well, a particle outside the well has energy not constrained to certain levels.)

So what happens when two wizards stand too close together? Do they start getting shared spell slots that correspond with molecular energy levels

 

[WayneLigon]

It would be interesting for a d20 Modern-type campaign. I'm re-reading Duane's 'Young Wizards' series now; all magic in her book is based on how space bends. This is why wizards need material components, words, etc; each item causes space to bend around it differently; when you hit the right combination, Stuff Happens and you can move matter and energy around. The entire reason wizards exist in her works is to slow down entropy. Spells are things like 'I am initiating a tempospacial elongation, authorization code epis-one-mesarch, on entity described as etc etc' (Player: I cast Slow).

I wouldn't worry overmuch about scientific rationalizations and such from the players: no one on Earth yet truly understands quantum physics anyway, and things that should 'logically' happen do not. Effects can precede causes, etc. These things have a logical underpinning, but we're not used to looking at the 'underbelly' of the universe that way.

 

[Umbran]

I don't think either the arcane magic or psionics you find in D&D relate to quantum physics at all well.

Quantum physics mostly a theory about the weird things that can happen on small scales. And that's cool. But D&D magic and psi only operate on the macro-scale. And that's not quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics is all about the strange, unpredictable, unintuitive, and subltle. D&D magics of all stripes are about producing blatant, striaghtforward effects.

D&D is a poor system in which to incorporate effects with QM flavor, IMHO. Better to work with something more like White Wolf's Mage: the Ascension.

 

[OurManMute]

I'd say both the arcane and the psionic tradition are equally well-versed in quantum mechanics. The main difference comes in interpretation: the psions, with their focus on the mind and the power of their consiousness, will of course favor the Kopenhagen interpretation of quantum physics, where the observer ultimately causes the collapse of the wave function. The arcanists on the other hand find this interpretation inadequate, as it dives too deeply into the metaphysical; they favor a Hidden Variables approach, where the outcome of an experiment is predictable in principle, but unpredictable in practice.

Case in point: if you wave your arms correctly and speak the proper mumbo-jumbo, a fireball will appear, regardless of who is watching. Only the damage the fireball causes will vary from experiment to experiment. Recent theoretical research calls for the existance of so called hidden "d6" variables, which determine the outcome of the experiment.

This is fun